Tempest (Magic: The Gathering)

← Weatherlight Stronghold →
Tempest
storm cloud
Released	October 1997 8 December 2008 (MTGO)
Size	350 cards (110 commons, 110 uncommons, 110 rares, 20 basic lands)
Keywords	Buyback, Shadow
Mechanics	Slivers, Licids
Designers	Mark Rosewater (lead), Richard Garfield, Charlie Catino, Mike Elliott
Dev. code	Bogavhati
Exp. code	TMP
First set in the Rath Cycle block
Tempest Stronghold Exodus

Tempest was the 20th Magic: The Gathering set and twelfth expert level set, and the first set in the Rath Block, released in October 1997. The release of Tempest represented a large jump in the power level of the card set, compared to the previous Mirage block. Many cards from Tempest instantly became (and still are) tournament staples. Its expansion symbol is a cloud, with a lightning bolt erupting out. On 8 December 2008 Tempest was released for Magic: The Gathering Online.

Set history

Tempest was the second set and the first standalone in the Weatherlight Saga, a continuous storyline for over four years' worth of Magic expansions.

Originally Tempest was intended to have a major "poison" theme, but in the end all poison cards were pulled from the set.

Mechanics

Tempest introduced two new keyworded mechanics to Magic: Buyback and Shadow.

Buyback appeared on instants and sorceries. Spells with buyback had an optional buyback cost which, if paid, caused the spell to return to its owner's hand after being cast instead of being placed in the graveyard.

Shadow appeared on creatures. Creatures with shadow could not block or be blocked, except by creatures with shadow. The shadow ability only appeared on certain blue, black or white creatures (with the exception of the red/white Soltari Guerrillas), and creatures with Shadow were all relatively small.

Several non-keyworded mechanics were also introduced. Licids were a creature type that had the ability to become creature enchantments. This caused numerous rules complications.

Slivers were also introduced in Tempest. These were creatures that shared their abilities with other Slivers in play. Slivers continued into Stronghold, and later made appearances in Legions, Scourge, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos and Future Sight.

The Medallions were a very popular cycle of artifacts, one for each color, that reduced the cost of spells of the appropriate color. Slower monocolor decks (mainly blue) saw them as first pick.^{[citation needed]}

The "stuck" or "slow" lands were a cycle of 5 uncommon lands that add mana of two allied colors, but when used, did not untap on your next turn. This "slowness" made them less popular than the Ice Age "pain lands." Additionally, there was a cycle of 5 rare lands which could generate enemy colors. These lands came into play tapped and could provide colorless mana without penalty, but would deal a point of damage to their controller when tapped for colored mana. They were later replaced with the enemy-color "pain lands" in Apocalypse, which used a format similar to the aforementioned Ice Age pain lands. Reflecting Pool was a powerful land used in many multi-colored decks, only reprinted once in Shadowmoor.

Design notes

Staple reprints

As was done in Ice Age and Mirage, Tempest continued to import staple cards from earlier sets into the current environment. Such staples in Tempest included: The 5 classic Circles of Protection (Black, Blue, Green, Red and White), Dark Ritual, Disenchant, Counterspell, Power Sink, Shatter, Spell Blast, Stone Rain, and Tranquility among others. In addition, a couple of newer staples such as Pacifism & Enfeeblement from Mirage and Coercion from Visions were reprinted.

Updated staples

As would become a tradition, Tempest began the process of essentially tweaking older cards to use the keywords of the current set. Examples of this in include Anoint (Healing Salve, with Buyback), Capsize (Boomerang, with Buyback), and Elvish Fury (Giant Growth, with Buyback).

Foundations

In addition to its reprints, keywording, and fixing of classic cards, Tempest laid the foundations for some effects that have shown up a couple of times since.

• The mechanism used on Kindle was reused in Nemesis, the Odyssey block, and Coldsnap. These sets include spells whose effects start small and grow each time a copy of the spell is played.
• "Growing" enchantments such as Legacy's Allure were a major component of Urza's block. These are enchantments that automatically receive a counter each turn and then can be sacrificed for some effect based on the number of counters.

Notable Cards

• Cursed Scroll - Ignored initially, it was later transformed into a powerful damage engine when players realized the 'guessing game' could be easily manipulated by having only 1 card in hand.
• Grindstone - Though initially considered a slightly tweaked version of Millstone, it was later combined with color changing cards like Painter's Servant for to allow a quick 3rd turn win.
• Intuition - Although printed to give an opponent a choice in which card you received, the choice could easily be manipulated into a lose-lose for the opponent. Examples include grabbing 3 cards that all function well out of the graveyard (i.e. via Dredge, Flashback, or reanimation), or simply grabbing 3 copies of the exact same card.
• Lotus Petal - Created as an attempt at creating a balanced version of Black Lotus, it still proved too powerful and was later banned or restricted in the eternal formats. This Common was later reprinted at Mythic Rare status in the From the Vault: Exiled set.
• Scroll Rack - Allowed players to efficiently sort through the top of their library. When combined with library shuffling effects, it could quickly pull the best and most useful cards out of a deck.
• Time Warp - Printed to be a balanced version of the Power Nine card Time Walk.
• Wasteland - Although it is a strictly inferior version of Strip Mine printed as an Uncommon, Strip Mine is banned or restricted in the formats where it is legal, making Wasteland an attractive alternative. Tournament play and limited supply over time have created heavy demand and high prices for Wasteland. Excluding promos, Wasteland has not been reprinted outside of Tempest.

External links

• Wizard's official page for Tempest
• Visual card list at gatherer.wizards.com